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Tuesday, March 24, 2015

I'm back! I did not post with TWD last week, as (1) I was on vacation in Florida (yeah, me!) and (2) when I looked for barley flour in the grocery store I couldn't find it and decided it wasn't worth the stress of getting "pebble bread" done before vacation. But I am back this week with Crispy-Topped Brown Sugar Bars, from Baking Chez Moi.

This cookie is sort of like a super-fancy rice-crispy treat, but better! My family was not a big fan of the marshmallow-y rice-crispy treat, so my mom made them with peanut butter instead. This was definitely an improvement, but nothing compared to working with CARAMELIZED rice crispies! Yes, caramelized. That even sounds better, right?

The base of this cookie is what I think a sugar cookie would taste like if made with brown sugar instead of white. Though Dorie says that the cookie layer is thin and chewy, mine was more crunchy, but not overly hard. Many fellow bloggers had warned about baking the cookie layer too long, so I kept a close eye on mine and took it out as soon as it started getting golden brown. I maybe should have taken it out sooner to get the chewy texture Dorie describes...

On top of the cookie is a thin layer of dark chocolate. You literally chop it into small pieces and spread them over the cookie bottom when it is still hot from the oven. Pop it into the still-warm oven for a few moments and then spread that melted chocolate all over the cookie. Mmmm.

Now, it is the top layer that is the most important. This is where the caramelized rice crispies come into play. Before starting this entire project, the caramelized rice crispies are prepared and allowed to form a sort of brittle. This crunchy deliciousness is crumbled on top of the melted chocolate and then the entire thing is refrigerated until the chocolate hardens.

What you end up with is a crunchy, fun sweet treat! This would be fun for a school bake sale - a surprising upgrade from your typical rice crispy treat. The end result is pretty sweet, and you could probably get away with cutting them into smaller pieces, to be honest. But they are fun to eat and oh, that caramelized topping. I'll be making more of that to put on ice cream and such!

These bars are a bit hard to cut and eat, as bits of caramelized rice crispies fly off in every direction. But finding those little bits of goodness makes it all fine in the end!

The recipe for Crispy-Topped Brown Sugar Bars can be found on pages 324-325 of Baking Chez Moi. If you google the recipe, you will find some people who have posted the recipe on their blogs, but you might just want to buy the book instead... It's a good one!

Monday, March 23, 2015

Happy Belated Pi Day! Yes, I know I am late, but I have good reason! And the mathy part of me just could not let this date pass me by. By date, I'm talking about 3-14-15, and if you remember back to geometry class, Pi equals 3.1415.... There won't be another date like this! Thus, March 14, 2015 was the best Pi day we will have in my lifetime, and what better way to celebrate than baking a pie? It turns out that we left for Spring Break on March 13, and got to Florida on the 14th. I did not have the ability (or groceries) to bake a pie right then, so I made it on the 15th instead. And then didn't blog about it til now, because, well, I was on vacation!We were on a beach vacation so I decided we needed a beachy pie. I found recipe for Pina Colada Pie! Mmmm, hmmm. If you are thinking, yum, you would be right! However this ended up being somewhat of a comedy of errors pie as well. See, I (being the baking nerd that I am) actually made and froze a pie dough disk in advance to bring to Florida. Which totally worked. However when I chose my Pina Colada Pie recipe, I did not think about the fact that you CAN NOT par-bake a pie with no weights inside. I had not thought of bringing pie weights or buying dried beans, so guess what? My delicious home-made pie crust slid down the sides of the pie pan and bubbled up in the middle and was pretty much a bona-fide mess! Time for Plan B! The pie recipe actually called for breaking up pecan cookies to make into a crust, so since I had thankfully brought a sleeve of graham crackers (theoretically for the clever boy's snacks), I used them for the cookies! Problem solved! Oh, and I sprinkled some brown sugar and cinnamon over the weirdo-looking pie shell, baked it for a bit longer, and we had that as a random treat. I can't throw a delicious (though ugly) pie crust in the trash!Ok, now that that craziness is all explained, let's talk about the actual pie!! As I mentioned, the pie crust is made of crushed graham crackers (cookies), which is mixed with coconut and butter, pressed into a pie pan, and baked until browned. The crust is topped with a layer of pineapple compote - crushed pineapple cooked with sugar and cornstarch until thick. I added about a cup of coconut to this layer (as I originally thought I'd be using a regular pie crust and not have actual coconut anywhere in the pie). On top of this comes a creamy layer of cream cheese, coconut cream and eggs. The entire pie is baked, then you top this with whipped cream that has been beaten with more coconut cream. I sprinkled toasted coconut around the edges and into a Pi shape in the middle. Yum. I mean. YUM. It tastes like vacation in pie form!

Want to make this beachy treat for your family? Here is the recipe!Pina Colada Pieadapted from Southern LivingIngredients2 cups pecan shortbread cookie crumbs (about 16 cookies) or 1 sleeve of graham crackers1 cup sweetened flaked coconut1/4 cup butter, melted1/3 cup sugar2 TB cornstarch1 8-oz. can crushed pineapple in juice1 8-oz. package of cream cheese, softened1 1/2 cups coconut cream (1 can - you can find this in the Asian section of the grocery store near coconut milk, OR near mix-ins for cocktails, called "cream of coconut" and often the Coco Lopez brand)2 large eggs1 cup whipping creamInstructionsPreheat the oven to 350F.Mix together the cookie crumbs, coconut and butter, and press against the bottom and sides of a lightly buttered deep dish pie pan. Bake for 10-12 minutes, until lightly browned. Cool completely on a wire rack. Mix the sugar and cornstarch together in a small heavy saucepan. Stir in the pineapple (I added 1 cup flaked coconut here). Bring to a boil while stirring constantly. Cook for 1 minute (keep stirring) until thickened. Allow to cool completely (takes about 20 minutes).
Beat cream cheese at medium speed with a heavy-duty electric stand
mixer, using whisk attachment, until smooth. Slowly add 1 cup coconut cream, beating at low speed just until blended. Refrigerate the remaining 1/2 cup coconut cream until later. Add eggs, 1 at a time,
beating just until blended each time.

Spread the cooled pineapple mixture over the crust, then spread the cream mixture over the pineapple. Bake for 38-42 minutes, until set. Cool completely on a wire rack, then cover and chill for at least 4 hours.

Beat the whipping cream on high speed until foamy. Add the coconut cream and continue to beat until soft-to-somewhat firm peaks form. Spread over the pie. Optional: top with toasted coconut.Printable RecipeAll in all, this turned out to be a super
delicious pie! I would definitely make it again, though this time I'd
do the crust the right way from the start!

Tuesday, March 10, 2015

Lemon Madeleines, from Baking Chez Moi. Yes, the glaze is a bit drippy looking. Let's just ignore that, shall we? I should probably entitled this "looks can be deceiving" or something, as that would certainly be appropriate.

My madeleines don't look anything like the glorious picture in the book. They were supposed to be a bit more golden instead of brown, and have a lovely hump on the underside. My oven temp seems to be off, which would explain the darkness of the madeleine. Plus I super overfilled the pan, as the recipe said it would make 12 so I just used all of the batter in the 12 madeleine holes, instead of getting out my second pan and putting some in there. They certainly would have looked prettier if they hadn't overflowed the pan.

This recipe was supposed to GUARANTEE a lovely hump on the non-grooved side, which mine did not get. This also could be due to overfilling the pan, I suppose.

However, looks aren't everything, because these are delicious little lemony treats. I want to make a cup of tea and devour the entire bunch. I will make these again someday. That time I'll use more pans and see if that makes a difference. But really, looks aren't everything. These taste delicious, which is what it's really about!

The recipe for the Lemon Madeleines can be found on pages 212 -213 on Baking Chez Moi.

Tuesday, March 3, 2015

Lemon Meringue Pie is something I have made many times. We are pretty big lemon pie eaters in my family, on both sides, actually. It is my dad's favorite and something Mr. Clever Mom requests as well. This is not to say that I make the perfect lemon meringue pie. Not at all. In fact recently I tried a lemon icebox pie and found that to MAYBE be superior to a lemon meringue.... (fighting words!)

Anyway, when I saw this week's recipe, literally entitled "not-your-usual lemon meringue pie" I definitely gave it a second look. Huh. It is sort of like a deconstructed lemon meringue pie, I would say. Sign me up!

You start with making a lemon curd. I followed the recipe against my better judgement, in that I used the requested amount of sugar. We are tart lemon pie lovers, not sweet. So I should have reduced the amount of sugar or used more lemon zest. However if you like a sweeter lemon pie, the amount of sweetness might be just fine for you. Even on our regular lemon meringues we drastically reduce the sugar amount. Pucker up!

After the curd is made, it has to sit in the refrigerator for a little while to set. In the mean time, you can take a nap as the rest of this recipe is really pretty simple to put together!

Using phyllo dough (from the frozen section of the grocery store), you make little triangles that are layered with clarified butter and sugar, and then baked until crispy. This is the deconstructed crust. You were supposed to bake this with a baking sheet on the top so that the phyllo does not puff, but instead I baked it most of the way with the sheet on top and then removed it for the last minute or so, which allowed the phyllo to brown a little. No puffiness!

By the way, is anyone else watching The Great British Baking Challenge on PBS?? If so, I haven't watched the finale yet so don't spoil it, ok? In a recent episode they MADE phyllo dough. As in FROM SCRATCH. Holy guacamole it was incredible. These are home bakers, and their challenge was to make homemade phyllo. I just sat there with my mouth gaping open, watching them pull the dough so thin! (I do typically watch this show with my mouth gaping open at the bakers total amazingness, and drooling a bit as well, to be honest! It really does blow my mind!) If you haven't been watching this show, I highly recommend seeking it out. It is available "on demand" here...

Anyway, back to the deconstructed lemon meringue pie! Once the phyllo is made into crispy little triangles, whip up some egg whites with brown sugar and then all of the components are ready!

Here we go! Layer one phyllo triangle,

Spread some lemon curd on the top,

Then top it with a zig-zag of meringue and torch the top.

Repeat this layering one more time and then end with a triangle. Dust with powdered sugar and there you go!

This was a fun little treat to eat. I liked breaking apart the phyllo triangles to get a full piece, and they provided a nice crunch to a pie with soft fillings. Had I reduced the sweetness in the lemon curd, this pie would have been perfect!

Fun, relatively easy, and tasty! A win-win over here!

You can find this recipe on pages 403-405 of Baking with Julia, or you can also find it here. I made half of the recipe for my little family, which worked out just perfectly! Click on over to the Tuesday's with Dorie blog and check out what the other bakers though of this recipe, okay?